Tag Archives: Immigrants

Canadian Multiculturalism Day

Canada

June 27 is Canadian Multiculturalism Day. That’s right, fitting nicely on the calendar between National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21) and Canada Day (July 1) is our day to celebrate the many varied cultures that make up our country. Recognition and promotion of multiculturalism is actually an explicit government policy here in Canada. In fact, Canada was apparently the first country in the world to make acceptance and promotion of multiculturalism an official policy back in 1971 (making this the 50th anniversary of multiculturalism policy in Canada). This policy commitment was further strengthened by the Canadian Multiculturalism Act in 1988.

While I’d like to focus on the positive multicultural aspects of Canadian society today, it goes without saying that not all peoples and cultural groups are treated equally here and some truly awful things happen to some Canadians because of their race or cultural identity or other aspect of who they are. As I write this, one of the top headlines on the CBC website is “Man with knife attacks sisters wearing hijabs outside Edmonton, RCMP say.” Police say the man yelled racial slurs at the two young women, who fortunately both seem to be recovering. Earlier this month in London, Ontario four members of a family were killed in a targeted attack, apparently because of their Muslim faith. Asian Canadians are also targets of discrimination and crime, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to these recent incidents, this week evidence came to light of hundreds unmarked graves at the site a residential school, the second such discovery in recent weeks . As a country, we must do better recognize and deal with the crimes and injustices of the past and the present.

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The Journey

Francesca SannaWhatever I was expecting when I picked this book up, Francesca Sanna completely exceeded them. I’d like to add this as a read-a-like to Why? (Nikolai Popov) and The Terrible Things (Eve Bunting), which I wrote about earlier, in that the reader is not spared for even a moment some of the experiences of refugees and migrants, and all of the authors do a spectacular job of opening up conversation about these heavier topics.

I’ll just quote Sanna’s blurb on her inspiration for writing The Journey:

 

The Journey is actually a story about many journeys, and it began with the story of two girls I met in a refugee center in Italy. After meeting them I realized that behind their journey lay something very powerful. So I began collecting more stories of migration and interviewing many people from many different countries. A few months later, in September 2014, when I started studying a Master of Arts in Illustration at the Academy of Lucerne, I knew I wanted to create a book about these true stories. Almost every day on the news we hear the terms “migrants” and “refugees” but we rarely ever speak to or hear the personal journeys that they have had to take. This book is a collage of all those personal stories and the incredible strength of the people within them.

I hope you pick up this book and go on a journey of your own through the story, because both the text and the illustrations complement each other well, making for an experience you won’t soon forget. Find below the cut some more suggested reads from the junior section about immigrant experiences, and displacement.

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